


Tada, You're Gay

by McFaye



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Magical and gay, also max has a crush on preston, includes the most awkward smooch i've probably ever written, neil tries to solve one of harrison's tricks and may or may not fall in love in the process, slight max angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 17:30:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14061867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McFaye/pseuds/McFaye
Summary: Title courtesy of my friend Nav





	Tada, You're Gay

**Author's Note:**

> Title courtesy of my friend Nav

Neil pulled himself out of bed to a breezy tent and an empty cot next to him. He stood up and walked over to the coffee machine he and Max had stolen from the counselors cabin. When he put the mug under the dispenser nothing happened, and upon checking there was no water in it. He grimaced and set the mug back down, then distracted by the noise coming from outside. He pushed away the canvas of the tent and peered out.

“So what, yapping with your mouth closed doesn’t make it magic, Harrison.” Nerris stood with her foam sword in her hand, criticizing Harrison’s tricks as usual.

“And rolling dice doesn’t make you a wizard, you buffoon. However, I actually have talent instead of playing cards.” 

“What about the ‘pick a card’ trick?”

“Those are magical cards you witch!”

Instead of watching another spat unfold he looked around for his friends, spotting Max standing off to the side. He walked towards him as he heard Nerris and Harrison’s argument escalate. Max’s expression didn’t shift as he saw Neil come towards him rubbing his eyes. 

“Hey Neil, wanna watch Tweedledee and Tweedledumbass fight over mana and shit?” Neil pulled his hand away from his eyes and looked back at the two. 

“Eh, not really. And thanks for drinking all the coffee.” Max shrugged, clearly apathetic about Neil’s lack of caffeine. He looked back to Harrison, Nerris had now retreated to her cardboard castle, picking her cards up from her previous play.

Harrison looked around the camp for someone that he could perform his most recent trick on. His usual plan was to try them out on someone gullible before Nerris could poke all sorts of holes in it, but she had done it early this time, and a good amount of the campers had just seen him get chewed out before he could test it. Top hat in hand, his eyes landed on Max and Neil, determining them appropriate for the trick, disregarding they were also some of his biggest critics. He had hoped it was early enough in the morning that they would let it slide this time.

“Ah, Neil and Maxwell, would you two like to see the premiere of my greatest trick yet?”

“Cram it Houdini, you know you can’t do real magic.”

Harrison’s eyes narrowed and he walked back over to the makeshift stage on the other side of the camp, planning to get there before Preston started up his Hamilton routine. Neil crossed his arms in pride as he had managed to defeat Harrison before he even performed. Though he did feel a little bad, magic was what mattered most to him. He was certain magic wasn’t real, but he had to admit that Harrison was very talented. 

“Am I freaking your mind?” Neil jumped, turning around to face the voice that came from behind him, to find that there was only vegetation. He turned back, looking over to Max checking if he heard it too. He gave him only a raised eyebrow in confusion.

“Wh-b-J”? Neil thrashed his arms around, making them seem even more boneless and noodle-like than usual.

“What? Are the mosquitoes back?” 

Neil blinked repeatedly, continuing to glance around him to make certain there wasn’t anyone there. His eyes then went to the other side of the camp, seeing Harrison sitting on the stage with a cheshire grin. Neil spluttered, trying to think of some sort of response, ultimately shutting his mouth as he stared into the whites of Harrison’s eyes. He inhaled sharply and marched over to the stage, prepared to give Harrison a stern talking-to. He arrived mere inches in front of him, staring up at him in annoyance.

“Why hello Neil, fancy seeing you here.” Neil stood on his tiptoes in an attempt to intimidate him.

“What are you up to Harrison?” He looked around the stage, searching for signs of a microphone or speaker. 

“Oh silly poindexter, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.” He reached up and pulled off his top hat, holding it to his chest.

“It’s magic!” 

“You know very well I’m not going to believe you when you talk like that.”

Harrison looked down at him, slowly kicking his heels against the stage. He bent down closer to Neil’s face, staring him in the eyes.

“It’s. Magic.” Neil’s eyes widened, glaring at his green eyes.

“Do you understand or would you like me to say it slower?”

Neil rolled his eyes and kicked the stage beneath him, only earning himself a bent nail to the foot, causing him to recall that the stage had been built by Campbell. If he didn’t know any better he might have thought there was money hidden behind the two by fours. After the immediate shock of pain to his foot he sighed and walked back over to Max.

“Feel better?” Neil growled, whipping aside the surrounding leaves and grass, searching for any signs of speakers or campers that could do a good Harrison impression.  
\--

The rest of the day Neil seemed vacant, staring at nothing and deep in thought. His responses were short and dismissive, and he fidgeted with his hands. He couldn’t even put forth any energy to comment on David’s unnecessary enthusiasm about each and every activity. Nikki even managed to put a bug she found on his arm and he didn’t even flinch or attempt to remove it. All of his willpower was focused on the trick Harrison had performed earlier. He attempted to reason with it in every scientific way possible. He was just delusional, he was hearing voices, one of the campers was assigned to act out a Harrison impression for the express purpose of humiliating him. It had to be something reasonable. It was not, could not, absolutely should not have been…

“Magic!” Neil looked up from his fidgeting hands, watching Harrison on the other side of the room pulling the ‘removable thumb’ trick on Space Kid. Neil found some comfort in knowing that trick wasn’t real, even being able to do it himself. He was content knowing he was in control, knowing there was no possible way Harrison’s tricks were of the supernatural nature, Space Kid was just dim.

Yet still, just because he could do incredibly easy humanly possible tricks, didn’t erase the shenanigan he had pulled on him earlier.  
\--

Max walked into the tent that night to see Neil had brought the blackboard out again. It was normally in the cabin, a board David had used when trying to teach the kids about the wonderful flora and fauna of the forest, but had since been rebranded as Neil’s coping mechanism for anything Harrison ever did. There were numerous times he had slaved over the board in an attempt to figure out some of the magician’s more bewildering tricks.

“For crying out loud Neil, the blackboard again?” The board was covered in equations and figures, side notes and analysis of everything that had occured that morning. 

“Yes Max, the blackboard again. I will not be complicit while Harrison is running around fooling gullible campers into hearing voices.”

“So, you’re saying that you’re gullible?” Neil dragged the chalk down in startlement. One could say he was prideful due to the incredible amount of scientific knowledge he had accumulated at such a young age, and being called anything resembling less than his current intellectual level was absurdly insulting.

“Wh- that’s not what I meant! I meant like, like Space Kid or, or, god forbid Nikki! You remember what happened last time she listened to him.”

“You crammed a rope of handkerchiefs and a rabbit down her throat to prove a point, and then Harrison fooled you into saying you believed in magic. This is kind of sounding like it’s your fault. He was just dicking around.”

“Even dicking around has its consequences. Don’t forget what he did to you.” Max’s face blanked and the boy looked at the ground for a moment. Neil furiously scrawled in a small empty space on the board.

“So help me Neil, if this results in me throwing up as much as a blade of grass I’m going to take my hands and wrap them around your thr-”

Neil put up one finger to silence him, looking over all of his notes, thinking them over as much as physically possible. Maybe he was thinking about this the wrong way. Perhaps going over the ways Harrison could possibly project his voice within the way science dictated sound should work, maybe he was supposed to be going over his own psyche. His being delusional was a possibility he didn’t want to realize, but he’d be damned if he was proven wrong. He picked up the eraser and wiped out all of his hard work.

“What are you doing?” Neil picked up the chalk again scratching down notes and analysis on how his brain could have possibly conjured up Harrison’s voice, and so realistically, too. Max backed away and sat down on his cot, leaving him to figure it out on his own. 

“Could you write a little quieter?” Neil didn’t respond, if anything he pressed the chalk to the board even louder.   
\--

Max had watched him write and rewrite his theories over and over, then ending up falling asleep halfway through Neil ranting to him. It was hypnotizing, listening to word after word that he couldn’t understand, almost like a bedtime story. In a matter of minutes he was lulled to sleep, passed out on his cot.

Even after a whole night of going over everything and using all that he knew about science, he still didn’t have an answer that worked for any theory. Anything he could think of came up inconclusive. At least with the handkerchief trick with Nikki he came to the realization that the act could be achieved by shoving the objects into Nikki’s mouth. But now, his research brought him nothing, and due to the fact he didn’t find anyone doing a Harrison impression in a bush, there was nothing he could do.

“It just doesn’t make sense. How on earth is there a reasonable way for him to do this without amplifying technology? He just walks around doing this with no regard for my well bein-”

“Uhhh, Neil?” 

Max woke up to Neil growling and mumbling at chicken scratch on the board. This was the second time he’d woken up to his insanity at the hand of his own scientific work. If Neil had appeared anything less than rabid he would have tried to comfort him, but he stayed back for fear of getting ripped to shreds.

“Morning Max. I just thought I’d do some more work with the voice thing from yesterday. I mean every angle I’ve looked at this from has resulted in no logical answer! But I’m fiiinnnee, I promise!” Neil’s eye twitched.

“Look Neil, he threw his voice, okay? Ventriloquists do it all the time. I bet if you walk out there and talk to him he’ll have a sock puppet or something. He was just trying it out on you.” Neil dragged his fingernails along his arms.

“Well that’s what I thought at first, but I expect you remember he was about fifty feet away from me! It sounded like he was right behind me, whispering in my ear! And there’s no evidence for j- augh!” 

“Calm down alright?” Neil glared daggers at him before shoving his mug under the coffee machine.

“Neil, so what if magic exists? It’s not the end of the world.” Neil flailed his arms in silent frustration. There were some things he could accept. He accepted Harrison considered himself to be magical, but he couldn’t accept that knowing that science didn’t allow for magic. But if science didn’t allow for magic then why wasn’t the math there? The coffee was spilling over the edge of his mug.

“Why are you so determined to rival against him anyway? What do you have to prove?” Neil had checked out at Max’s last comment, his mind had stopped running, he was on autopilot. Why exactly was he always trying to prove him wrong? He could agree to disagree, maybe even attempt a truce. The problem was, he had been so against him before, maybe he wouldn’t want to settle.  
\--

Neil had never thought that he would be attempting friendship with Harrison, especially after the whole shoving-a-rabbit-down-Nikki’s-throat debacle, but Max was right, he didn’t have anything to lose. Harrison was sitting on the stage again, looking through his cards and practicing his delivery. He stomped over to the stage and put on a friendly face.

“Heyyy Harrison. How’s your day going so far?” Harrison looked up from his cards down at Neil’s curly hair. After leaning back a bit he saw his face.

“Oh, now you’re interested in me?” Neil clenched his fists.

“Of course! I know we’re both very different people, we are about different things, but I propose a draw. How about you?” Harrison kept eye contact with him, and set down the deck of cards. He extended a gloved hand down to Neil. He shakily extended his hand as well, shaking it for a few moments before letting go. Neil couldn’t understand why his face was flushing.

“Alright Neil, so you believe now?” Neil wished he could redact his handshake. He took a deep breath and smiled.

“Sure! Why not! There sure is magic! In some form or another. Like when you shook my hand I could feel some electricity! Pretty cool shocking trick Harrison.” The magician tilted his head in confusion.

“Neil, I didn’t do any shocking trick.” The blood ran out of Neil’s face as he searched for something to say in return. Why did he think he did a trick if he didn’t, was the voice throwing trick from earlier fake too? No, that wasn’t it.

“Riighhht. You’re so good at magic you don’t even have to try!” Harrison grinned smugly.

“You think I’m magical?” Neil gulped.

“Heh, that’s a, a way of putting it. I’m just gonna go back to my tent. Have a good day, Harrison!” Neil waddled back over to the tent he and Max shared, avoiding eye contact with all other campers. Max appeared to be trying to get Nikki to stop eating something, as if she was a dog trying to eat slippers.

“Nikki that’s not food!” Max looked away from his business of prying Nikki’s mouth open to see Neil hunch and let out a breath he’d been holding for far too long.

“Oh hey Neil, you look exhausted for someone who only walked to the stage and back.” Neil panted with his sweaty palms on his knees, staring at the dirt on the ground. Nikki put her face in front of his, waving her hands in front of his eyes, getting no reaction.

“Neiiillll? Hello?” He blinked quickly and snapped out of it, standing up straight and staring at his friends. Max squinted at him. Neil acting weird wasn’t unusual, but this was weirder.

“What’s your problem? I know you don’t like socializing but you only had a five minute conversation, basket case.” Neil spun around, seeing nearly every camper staring at him in confusion, including Harrison.

“Tent. Blackboard. Now.” 

Neil quickened his pace and made his way over to the tent, swiftly erasing the current notes he had on his board. He nearly snapped the chalk in half picking it up. He had taken to the sacred blackboard time and time again in the last couple of days. It was the only solace he had in the uncertainty. He had figured after numerous accounts of Harrison getting on his nerves that it was only his requirement for science to be in control of everything, but every time he’d furiously scrawled on the blackboard didn’t lead to that conclusion. It didn’t lead to any conclusion, or at least not one that correlated to what he was searching for. No matter what angle he looked at it from he never got a sound answer. 

After giving him a few minutes to calm down Max decided to follow him into the tent. He was apathetic a majority of the time but after spending a lot of the summer being Neil’s friend he actually became concerned when he stormed off. Seeing Neil writing on the board was business as usual, until he scratched a huge chalk X over all of his work. If Neil was left alone to work out his problems on his own it’d usually go away in time, but it had been a while, and it didn’t look like anything was helping him.

“Hey uh, you alright? Did Harrison say something?” Neil’s eye twitched.

“Did he say something? Oh he fucking said something. He fucking did something. I thought I knew that science was related to everything, but when it comes to him there are things I just can’t explain.” 

Max glanced over to his bed, looking at his teddy bear underneath his cot. He had been desperate to keep it private from everyone, including Neil, but it was no use anymore. He picked it up and walked back over to Neil staring at the chalk dust on his hands.

“Hey, you wanna hold Mr. Honeynuts? It makes me feel better.”

Neil snatched the stuffed bear away from his friend and tightened his arms around it. A few seams connecting the leg to the body started to pop open. Max gently reached over and took the bear back from him. He set it back down on top of his blankets and wiped off the chalk dust that Neil had gotten on his arms.

“So uh, what does that stuff on the board mean?” Neil reluctantly looked at the board again with a sigh of defeat.

“Well since me trying to figure out how he did it didn’t work, I started trying to figure out what my problem was. Maybe I was hearing voices or going insane, so I started to analyze how I reacted to being around that schmendrik.” Max didn’t understand any of the words or diagrams, but it seemed to calm him down.

“Well uh, what’s that thing mean?” Max pointed to a little drawing on the top of the board.

“Going over my body and brain’s reactions to those tricks I arrived at the conclusion that even though Harrison fuels my anger my brain keeps creating unnecessary amounts of dopamine.” Max stared at him. He’d never understood how a twelve year old was so intelligent.

“And… what’s dopamine?” Neil straightened up and he’d stopped sweating. It seemed the nerd talk had gotten him to stop panicking.

“It’s a chemical the brain makes that gives you happiness and a feeling of contentment. My stupid brain does it every time I’m near him or I think about him. I assume my brain is doing this to make me feel better, but it just makes me want a lobotomy.” 

“Neil-”

“I know, I know, lobotomies are illegal now, I was joking.”

Max went over what his friend said in his head, thinking through everything. If the smartass couldn’t figure it out then maybe he needed the help of someone with less of an intellectual burden. He tended to overthink everything and it never seemed to do him any good.

“So, your brain gets the happy chemical whenever anything to do with Harrison happens?” Neil nodded, wiping the cold sweat off his hands and onto his sleeves.

“So….you’re gay?” Neil perked up, like a deer in headlights.

“WH-NO! That’s not, that isn’t what it means! It just means every time I’m near him my brain makes me think I’m having a good time, I get all nervous and my face heats up an-” His voice faded as he put together everything he had just said. Max was smirking at him.

“Don’t. Say. A. Word.” 

“A word.” Neil hissed and waved his arms around, furious at Max’s impositions. 

“B-j-you! Shut!” Neil clamped his hand over Max’s mouth and pulled it back when it got covered in spit, which he wiped on his pants.

“Okay wise guy, stop smiling, what do you get out of this. What does anyone get out of this?”

“Best case scenario, Harrison likes you back and you become his wack job wizard boyfriend. I’m very happy for you two.” Neil grimaced and clenched his fists.

“Look Neil, if you and Houdini keep up your stupid little rivalry then I will literally escape the camp again. Just yesterday I coughed up a fucking feather. A feather, Neil. Make that boy happy or I swear I will throw a tantrum. Not a swearing tantrum, a five year old ‘mom-won’t-buy-me-the-new-racecar-toy’ tantrum. You have been warned.”

Max snatched the coffee mug from the machine and took a long sip, determined to keep it down. Then walking out of the tent and leaving Neil alone with the shock of what he’d just figured out. He always trusted science, it all made sense, it all clicked. It was a system. What he’d just learned was true according to science, it was the only possible conclusion to every problem Harrison gave him.

He swung open the tent, ready to ask Max what he was supposed to do about this, how he expected him to do anything, but was met with David attempting to get the campers to do another nature activity. Perhaps it was better if he stayed in the tent. He watched everyone’s annoyed responses to having to do anything and David’s extreme happiness about doing something.

“Okay kids, today we’re going to start planting flowers! Now everyone come over and pick up a seed packet!”

The campers begrudgingly walked up and took their seed packets, grumbling the whole time. Neil stepped back a few feet so nobody would see him and make him participate. For the most part, nobody saw him, mostly because nobody was interested in watching Neil’s tent.

However, someone did meet his eyes, causing Neil to retreat and flop onto his bed.  
\--

Harrison stared at the opening of the tent where Neil just was, concerned why he’d run away so suddenly. Neil usually treated him with blatant disrespect and numerous countering facts, but now he almost seemed scared. When around Harrison he usually opted for the fight response, but since his latest trick he’d been sticking to the flight response. He tapped Preston on the collar.

“Has anyone else noticed Neil acting kind of weird recently? He isn’t as douchey as usual.” Max snickered from a foot or so away, laughing at Harrison’s inability to notice anything. For someone who was practically always flirting with Neil he seemed to have no idea how he operated.

“What’s so funny?” Max opened his mouth, but closed it upon remembering that Neil would probably strangle him if he told anyone at all, especially the crush in question.

“Nothing nothing, just uh, a joke I remembered.”

“What was the joke?”

“You had to be there.” Max coughed and walked to the other side of the group to converse with Nikki about how he almost got himself killed, if Neil had been watching of course.

Harrison kept looking at the tent, completely tuning out David’s instructions on how to plant flowers, and his instructions telling Space Kid not to eat them because he would not grow a flower in his stomach. Flirting around with magic had always annoyed Neil, he was aware of that, and a lot of the time he tried to annoy him on purpose, but something he did must have really gotten to him.

When he planned doing the voice throwing trick on Neil he had anticipated that he would just say something sciencey and this time he might not shove a handkerchief rope and rabbit down Nikki’s throat. He thought it would be funny, he’d freak him out a little at first, he’d use a bunch of big words and that’d be all. Harrison liked when he used big words, it was kind of cute. But he had messed something up along the way somehow, he was hiding from him specifically.

“Okay kids, first things first is to dig a small hole in the ground where you’d like to put your flower.” 

“Hey Max, where’s Neil?” Nikki asked as she planted along with David’s instructions.

“Just hiding from the truth. I’m sure he’s fine.” Nikki smoothed a handful of dirt over her seed and stood back up to join Max.

“What truth?” 

“Just that he wants to experience magic firsthand.” Nikki tilted her head, trying to understand what he was referencing.

“I don’t get it.”

“Good.” Nikki looked down at the patch of dirt where her flower would grow, impatiently waiting for it to grow at the same time thinking of what Max said.

“Ohhh, you mean how like you want to experience the theater?” Max’s eyes widened, and he then proceeded to say he had no idea what she was talking about.

“But what about the time you told me you like-” Max slapped his hand over Nikki’s mouth, only to get his hand bitten.

A few feet away Harrison stood, hat in hand, glancing around at all the other campers, who were all distracted by their own conversations, completely unaware of what Max said and what he meant. Of course he had learned over the course of the summer so far not to believe everything Max said, but it was certainly an explanation. He was hiding from him, he told him he felt electricity when he shook his hand, but what confused him was why it was happening now. 

He could understand it slightly, all that flirting had paid off, though of course he had no idea how. He wondered if he liked him at the time that he’d tried to make doves fly out of his hat and ended up making snakes come out. It ended in one of them taking off a small chunk of Neil’s hair and yet somehow…

The tent was always bland and boring, something Neil was used to seeing, but every time he glanced around in nervousness every object and feature seemed new to him. He felt pathetic, Harrison had only looked him in the eye for two seconds and he was a blushing, panting mess. It was stupid that the body involuntarily acted this way when it had a crush. It was completely unfair, a crush was supposed to be a secret thing, and his body just had to give it away.

“Hey Neil!” Neil looked up to see Nikki standing at the opening of the tent, her body and clothes covered in dirt.

“What are you doing in my tent?”

“Oh come on, Max told me how you want to, heh, Experience Magic?” He shot up off his cot and leaned over Nikki to discreetly move aside the tent flap to glare at Max, who ended up being right in front of his tent.

“Max… get in here. Now.”   
\--

“Why would you tell her Max? You know damn well Nikki can’t keep a secret.”

“Yeah, I know.” Max glared at Nikki out of the corner of his eye, upset at her mentioning how he may or may not have a small interest in a certain theatrical camper.

“It’s alright guys, I won’t tell anyone else. I will not mention how much Neil wants to kiss Harrison!” Neil’s turned completely red upon hearing it said out loud. A fact he hadn’t even acknowledged in his own mind just thrown out recklessly by Nikki. 

“Nikki, the point of keeping a secret is not saying it at all. Also, David finally noticed you’re gone and you better get out there before he puts together a search party.” Neil took a deep breath and raised off his cot on shaky legs, not fully prepared to face anyone, much less Harrison.

“Do you two promise to keep your mouths shut?” Nikki nodded energetically, Max only shrugged.

“Alright then, I’m going out there.” He flipped open the canvas of the tent to see all the campers focused on their own things. Ered on her skateboard, Dolph painting, etc., etc. Once he showed his face David breathed a sigh of relief at finding him.

“There you are Neil! You missed the flower planting, but you can still hang out with some of your other friends! How about you hang out with uh…” David looked around for any campers not currently in the middle of something.

“Harrison! You two always have such fun together with your little debates! Go on!” David nudged Neil with a hand on his back, then walking over to find Gwen to discuss how well the day had gone so far. Neil stood in the middle of the camp, looking over to Harrison leaning on the side of the stage, trying to turn a leaf into something else. David had left, he didn’t technically have to go talk to him at the moment..

“Uh, heeeyyy Harrison. How’s it, going?” Neil wanted to slap himself in the face at his pathetic attempt to be casual. It was only a greeting but it felt like the stupidest thing he’d ever said.

“Good, good. I’m trying to turn this leaf into a blade of grass. You’d think it’d be easy since they’re both plants but, you know.” Neil drifted in and out, trying to pin Harrison’s accent. It wasn’t bad to listen to, it was lovely if anything, music to his ears. Harrison turned the leaf over a little and it turned into a flower.

“Hm.” 

“Uh, close enough, right?” Harrison chuckled. He had come to camp to improve his magic skills but he still had a ways to go. He looked over at Neil, remembering what he’d overheard from Max earlier.

“Here, you can keep it. You know, since you didn’t get to plant one.” Neil looked at him in bewilderment, and then back at the flower. He couldn’t tell if it was romantic or not, but him holding a flower out for him was definitely tempting. Harrison was right there, but at the same time, everyone else was also right there.

“Thanks. It’s uh, really pretty.” He took it from Harrison’s gloved hand. It was beautiful, and his face was heating up again. He could feel the dopamine coursing through his brain. He then made the mistake of looking back at him, seeing him with a wide, fond smile. That was the last straw. What was originally a slight blush was now his face becoming completely red, and there was a lot more of that godforsaken dopamine now.

“You wanna hang out later or something?” Code red.

“H-hang out? Well I mean, sure. Sure.”

“We can hang out here. Maybe this evening?” Neil was sweating far too much for comfort now, and the fact that his shirt was a sweater didn’t help. Hell, only about an hour ago did Max help him come to the conclusion that he had a crush on him and now he was actually asking him to hang out.  
\--

On the way back to his tent he told himself that he was not going to tell anyone but as soon as he got in and saw Max he immediately blurted. He had to say it, he had to tell someone. Max’s response was actually more than apathetic, if only by a small amount.

“Seriously, you got a date with him?”

“It’s not a date, he just said hanging out.” Max groaned. For some reason he had been the most determined to get the two together.

“Look you spineless nerd.” He grabbed him by the shoulders.

“I need you to keep Houdini in check or I’m going to literally kill you. Whether he’s trying to or not I still occasionally cough up things I’ve never eaten. Do you know what it’s like to throw up a key? It is the most uncomfortable thing ever.” 

It only now occurred to Neil how affected Max was by this, he didn’t actually think it was still happening. He uncomfortably raised his arms and patted him on the back in an attempt to comfort him. He could almost feel him try to hug him back before tensing up again.

“I don’t need your hugs, just kiss that boy until you take all the stupid fucking magic out of him, goddamnit! For my sake!” 

“Are you oka-“ 

“Just go Neil, I’m sure your Romeo is waiting for you.” Neil smirked.

“Any particular reason you use the word Romeo? Do you like the theater?”

“I swear I will poke your eyes out.” Max left the tent trying to shield his blushing face from anyone who tried to look. Neil didn’t know why, but knowing Max was just as much of a disaster as him made him feel a bit better. 

The time that passed between Neil telling about the hanging out and the actual hanging out was excruciating. He was happy and yet at the same time he was absolutely terrified. Through eating dinner or just barely participating in conversations with his friends, every moment was unbearable. Facing the fact he liked Harrison was enough for one day, he had to cancel. He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t just walk up to him later and make his mouth talk words. It was impossible for him to go out there and see his stupid cute face, his stupid cute voice. There was nothing to be done.

Neil had decided he was going to go to him and tell him he couldn’t do it. He was not going to. Hanging out with him, one on one, alone, was going to be agonizing. He didn’t understand why he was so nervous anyways, Harrison was an absolute goon who just did a couple tricks here and there, if anything Neil was above him. Yet, somehow, his heart kept racing, he was sweating, and he couldn’t stop. When he decided it was time to leave the tent he struggled to get up and had to reason with himself.

He had been in that stupid tent all day, he had to go out there, even if it meant going to hang out with Harrison in a romantic or non romantic way. Neil wished he would have told him what his intentions were before it was time to hang out. His legs shook as he raised up off his cot and stretched, doing everything he could before he actually left. Looking outside was nice at first, the sunset was lovely, it was nearly dark out, but it didn’t feel as calming as he remembered what he was going out there to do. He took a deep breath and walked out, seeing nobody around him. The whole camp was deserted.

“Okay Neil, time to do this. Deep breaths.”

“Talking to yourself?” Neil jumped, scanning around to find whoever was talking to him. There was nobody there. Of course, Harrison’s trick again, so he was going to meet him. Neil laughed awkwardly to himself, looking around to find where Harrison was.

“That trick is just creepy. Where are you?” Neil looked over to the stage, checking for any sign of Harrison. He had thought he would be on the stage but he saw no sign of him.

“I’m over by where we planted the flowers. Come on.” Neil wasn’t entirely aware where that was, but he decided the open patch of grass behind the cardboard castle was probably close enough, so he walked towards it.

“No you buffoon, over here! By the counselor’s cabin!” He stopped and looked back to the cabin, seeing a rather brightly colored sign that David made in honor of the planting.

The sky around the camp was the color of dusk and a slightly cold breeze had started to pick up. He marched over to behind the counselor’s cabin and peered around. No one was there, as he was afraid of. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he spun around to see Harrison standing there.

“Ah, Neil. You’re just in time.” 

“For what exactly?” Harrison bounded over in front of him and led him to where the flowers had been planted. Neil saw only small mounds of dirt where the seeds were placed. It wasn’t much to look at.

“Uh, I don’t get it.” Harrison stood in the middle of the mounds and smiled. His magic skills were far from perfected, but he had been practicing on leaves and blades of grass all day for this. He spread his arms out and slowly raised them, closing his eyes.

“Prepare yourself, Smartypants.” 

Harrison breathed deeply, his gloved hands moving slowly. Suddenly, the ground shook slightly. Neil immediately thought of Sleepy Peak before he realized the mounds on the ground shifting. It was like watching flowers growing sped up hundreds of times. They rose out of the ground and step by step the flowers grew. The brightly colored petals burst from the stems and then grew taller. Far taller than flowers were supposed to grow. Finally, they rose up to Neil’s shoulders and stopped. 

“Woah, Harrison. It’s...beautiful.” Harrison lowered his arms and panted, exhausted from his illusion.

“You think so? I did it just for you.” He smiled weakly, hoping Neil really did like it.

“Yeah, this is amazing. How’d you do it?” Harrison smirked at those words, a phrase he was hoping for. He walked towards him as he stared at the lovely flowers, the thought that Harrison had actually done it just for him running through his head. Neil was so distracted, gazing around at the flora he barely noticed Harrison right in front of him.

“How did I do it?” Harrison’s lines were of course rehearsed, he had thought over various reactions he would get from Neil and his charismatic reply. Luckily, sometimes Neil could be predictable.

“It’s magic silly.”

Harrison had been very flirtatious to Neil for a very long time, and appeared to know what he was doing. However, he had spent the entire day rehearsing in his head and tirelessly practicing the flower trick. Now, there was only one step left in his plan, which had gone smoothly so far, and he would be damned if it wasn’t perfect. Neil felt a gloved hand on his cheek and he could feel the nervousness coming back.

There were tons of shows and movies with kiss scenes that Harrison had watched, and he thought they had taught him all he needed to know. Unfortunately, they had not taught him how to apply those methods. The kiss was incredibly clumsy and both boys had a complete lack of grace in it. Both of them thought this was just how a kiss worked. Both of them also completely overestimated how long it was supposed to be. Of course neither fully grasped the concept of kissing yet, but they knew of little other ways to show affection.

After pulling back, the eye contact was nice yet very uncomfortable. Harrison wasn’t sure if Neil even liked it and Neil wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened. The only sound was breathing, crickets, and the distant sound of conversations from the other campers. To bridge the awkward silence, Neil clapped stiffly. 

“Heh. So.” He inhaled sharply and looked around. He saw nothing, save for tufts of black and of green hair retreat back behind the canvas of his tent. Looking back at Harrison, his face was worrisome.

“So...was that, okay?” Neil nodded swiftly.

“Yeah! I mean, y-yeah. That was nice.” 

“Yeah. Good.”  
\--

“Woah! The flowers just grew super fast!” Nikki looked around to the new flower garden, admiring them.

“Nikki, we saw Harrison grow them last night.” She looked back to Max and nodded, recalling spying on Neil and Harrison’s date.

“Uh, well kiddos. This was supposed to be a fun lesson about patience and blossoming but um, the flowers do look nice.” 

The whole camp gazed over the new development to their garden, wondering how on earth they had grown overnight. After numerous minutes of ridiculous theories as to how they had sprouted so quickly, Harrison heard Neil click his tongue in disappointment.

“They’re all wrong, there’s no scientific explanation for the flowers growing that quickly.” Harrison snickered at Neil’s scientific jargon. He bent down to pick up one of his extremely tall flowers, holding it out for Neil.

“Oh, Harrison, that’s really sweet of y-” And due to Harrison’s lack of control of his powers, the petals erupted into flames, causing him to yelp and drop it onto the grass, violently stomping on it until it was put out. He looked down at the flower in disappointment.

“Well uh, you get the idea.” Neil laughed softly.

“Magic.”


End file.
